


Glory

by arianaybiatch (Harlecat)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Also... no one dies of cancer????, Alternate Universe - High School, Character Death, Kenny takes care of Levi (Ackerman Family!), M/M, Major Character Injury, Major Illness, Other, cuz you know, hospital again, hospital au, i don't even ship ereri i just thought it kind of worked for this fic ?, i'm not planning that anyways, mentions of diseases and surgeries (cause you know a hospital), there will be death though
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-25
Updated: 2015-07-11
Packaged: 2018-03-25 16:08:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3816607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harlecat/pseuds/arianaybiatch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After they're assigned a community service project, Hange manages to talks Levi into spending time with the youths at a local hospital. It is there that he meets Eren, the son of the owner, and Levi's life begins to change. He's socializing, playing nice with others, and his life is turning around. For the most part. It's no big deal, anyways. Eren isn't even that good looking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> “Because there is no glory in illness. There is no meaning to it. There is no honor in dying of.” - John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

There is no cure for boredom.

Levi sighed and tapped his pen against his desk. He hated this class. He hated school. He wanted to go home. His teacher, though, kept prattling on and on. Levi wondered how much trouble he’d be in if he just got up and left. _Blah, blah, assignment, blah, blah, don’t leave it off, if you haven’t done it, start… due at end of semester, blah… won’t remind you… not as long as you think…_

The bell rang and Levi grabbed his bag, heading out without looking back.

“Hey, Levi!”

He’d been about to put on his block-out-voices music, and kept untangling his headphones, but Hange caught up with him too quickly.

“You forgot to grab this!”

He looked down. She was holding out a sheet of paper. He took it.

“What’s this?”

“The handout? You know, for the community service project?” Levi looked at her. Hange laughed. “Man, you don’t pay attention in class at all!”

“Mm.”

“So, what’re you gonna do? You have to get in at least twenty hours.”

“I dunno.”

“Hey, Erwin!” Hange caught sight of someone behind Levi, and raced away, waving her own paper in her hands. “Good news!”

Levi wasn’t sure how a school project qualified as good news.

He walked home the way he normally did, alone and glaring at everyone he saw. In his opinion, the biggest problem in his life was the fact that to get home, he had to walk to same route used by Jean Kirschstein and his idiot friends from the whole idiot sophomore class. They were loud. They were obnoxious. And they were right behind Levi. At least they weren’t as bad as they’d been in their freshman year.

He made it home without suffering ear damage from their yelling, or his blaring music to cover up their yelling, and headed inside immediately. There was a note on the table.

_Dinner in fridge. Back at ten._ _Kenny._ Levi checked the fridge. Christ, Kenny had made meatloaf again. He got out a frozen pizza and set it out to defrost, then went upstairs. He did some homework and wasted some time, then he ate dinner and showered, and wondered how to waste more of his time.

At nine forty five, the expected yell of _“Levi, you home?”_ came from downstairs.

“I’m sleeping, asshole!” he shouted back, and a few moments later, Kenny opened the door.

“Hey! You doing homework?”

“Uh-huh.”

“You’ve got to come down, I found some awesome knives today.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, you wouldn’t believe the other shit I got.”

“Sure.”

“You coming down?”

“I’m doing homework.”

“Suit yourself. Don’t stay up too late!” Kenny headed back down the stairs, leaving Levi’s door open. Levi stood to close it. Kenny was an antiques collector and salesman, but he did his business online, which led to their house being filled with lots of boxes, bubble wrap, and junk. Levi started his English essay at eleven.

“Hey!” Kenny shouted from downstairs. “Did you see the packaging tape?”

Levi ignored him. He’d gotten some more homework that day, hadn’t he?

Well, he couldn’t find the papers, so whatever.

* * *

 

“Hey, Levi!”

Levi turned to see Hange hurrying down the hall, pushing her glasses up their nose.

“Oh.”

“Have you started the community service project yet?”

“Uh… The community…”

“For class? You know-”

“Oh, that. No.”

“It’s been a few weeks, do you know what you’re doing?”

“No, now, I’ve got to get to-”

“You know what you _should_ do?”

“Uh, no-” Hange shoved a brochure into Levi’s hands. “What is this?”

“You know the hospital? Well, you may have noticed, we have a pretty shitty mayor-”

“I’m with you so far.”

“And they’re kinda in a bad financial situation, so it’s a great place to volunteer right now! You don’t like, work with deadly diseases or anything. It’s just, you know, bringing people their food, chilling with some folks there. And you get to hang out with lots of the kids.”

“And you’re telling me this because…?”

“You should totally do it! Erwin and I have got a few people together who go over once a week and we still need someone to cover Thursdays! And the more people we have each day, the better!”

“Sorry, I’m busy Thursdays. And every day.”

“Doing what?”

“Life.”

“See, there’s that sense of humor! They’ll love you!”

“I really don’t-”

“Come on,” Hange said. “If you can’t do Thursday, work another day with someone else! You need the hours, right? Just try it out for one or two after school. If you don’t like, it, fine. What day works for you?”

“I’m busy.”

Hange opened her mouth to say something, then spotted a figure at the end of the hall. “Erwin!” She grabbed Levi by the arm and dragged him over. “Erwin, I have  new recruit!”

Erwin looked from her to Levi. “Yeah?”

“It’s slightly possible,” Levi said. “Probably not.”

“I was just asking him what day worked for him. He’s free Thursdays.”

Levi glared at Hange.

“You’re Levi… Ackerman, right?” Levi nodded, and Erwin grinned. “You were on last semester’s honor roll, right?”

“Was I?”

“You should definitely join up,” Erwin says.

“I was planning to do my hours like most people do. At the end of the semester. Not actually doing anything. Possibly faking it.”

“If you do it, I’ll drive you to lunch,” Erwin said. “I have a car.”

Hange nodded. “It’s a nice car!”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Is that legal?”

“It is if you’re a eighteen.”

“You’re a senior?”

“Yup.”

“Huh. Where d’you go to lunch?”

“Depends on the mood.”

“Alright, you do it weekly and don’t talk to me, we have a deal.”

“Fair enough.”

Hange clapped. “See, I knew you’d agree! You’ll have loads of fun! So you _can_ do Thursdays, right?”

“I guess.”

“Alright,” Erwin said. “It’s a date, then. What day you want your weekly lunch?”

“I dunno, Thursday too?”

“Clever. I’ll explain the work then.”

“Uh huh.”

“Meet me in the parking lot.”

“Sure.”

The bell rang.

“See you then!” Erwin said, and started off, and Hange bolted off towards a staircase. Levi put in his headphones and headed to his next class.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I intended to update on Friday, but life got cluttered. I'll make sure to update every Friday from now on.  
> Anyways, have a mundane meeting. Levi has no idea what he's in for.

Levi frowned and looked up at the hospital. He felt like it should have a bigger cross. Maybe a redder one. That part was obviously lacking. In fact, the whole _building_ should be bigger.

He walked through the front doors and took out his headphones, then headed to the front desk. A dark haired woman was on duty.

“Hello,” he said. “I’m Levi.”

The woman who was working looked up. “Hello.”

“I’m s’posed to volunteer.” Levi said. “I know Hange and Erwin?”

“Oh!” the woman smiled. “Such lovely kids.”

“Yeah, uh-huh.”

“I’m Carla Jaeger.” She stood up to offer him her hand. “It’s wonderful to meet you! You know, they told me someone new would be coming. My son’s actually in right now, so he’ll be able to show you the ropes. We’re really so lucky our community has kids like you.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Eren!” Carla called. “There’s a boy here!”

_“Coming!”_

Levi wound his headphones into a tight loop and a boy emerged from behind the counter. He had the same dark hair and large green eyes as Carla, and was fairly good looking. He seemed to be close to Levi’s age.

“Eren, this young man was here to do some volunteer work. Erwin mentioned someone might be coming by, right?”

“Oh, yeah.” Eren reached forward to shake Levi’s hand. “You’re Levi, right? Ackerman?”

Levi looked at his hand for a moment before reaching for it. “Yeah, that’s right.”

Eren opened the door behind the counter to come out. “We have P.E. together, right?”

“I don’t know. I try to block that class out.”

Eren laughed. “Yeah, I’d figured. Come on, I’ll show you around.” He started off across the lobby, and Levi followed him. “I’m Eren, by the way. Eren Jaeger.”

“Oh. Are you related to her?”

“Yeah, she’s my mom. Alright, so this is the main hall. Volunteers normally work in the youth ward, which is upstairs, come on. We’ve got a vending machine there, and some bathrooms, and there’s an elevator, and here’s the staircase. My dad bought those paintings from some friend of his. Window. Alright, this is the youth ward. Babies and toddlers are down that way, but we’re not supposed to work with them unless it’s an emergency. Mostly we just bring food over, and then go around and check on them, you know. So, I’ll go around and get you introduced, and we’ll see if anyone wants a snack from the vending machines.”

Levi couldn’t believe bringing patients cheap vending machine food counted as volunteer work.

Eren pushed open a door. “Luckily, this was a pretty big building before it was a hospital, so most patients have their own rooms. It used to be a hotel, actually. And this is Petra’s room. Hey, Petra!”

Levi followed Eren into the room. A girl with light ginger hair was laying in bed. When she saw them, she pushed herself up. “Hey!”

“This is Levi,” Eren said. “He’s a new volunteer. Levi, this is Petra. We were just gonna do a tour, you wanna come with?”

Petra grinned. “Sure!”

Oh, great. More people.

Eren headed towards her bed and pulled some sort of mechanism from underneath her bed.

“This is Petra’s wheelchair,” Eren said.

“Oh.”

“Here, come over.” Levi walked over. “So, if you pull here, and then push here, and fold here, it folds out, see? I’ll show you how to collapse it later.”

“Okay.”

Eren helped Petra out of the bed and into her wheelchair. She wheeled herself out of the room.

“Why does she need a wheelchair?” Levi asked.

“She’s recovering from a spinal injury,” Eren said.

“Is she gonna walk again?”

“It depends.”

“On what?”

“Whether or not she gets surgery, what kind, and if she recovers properly.”

Levi frowned. “Well, how’s she supposed to _live_ in a _chair_?”

Eren gave him a look, raising an eyebrow. Levi looked away.

“Anyways,” Eren said. “We’re a small district, so we don’t have too many patients right now. You’ll mostly be working with the kids and teens. Right now we’ve got Petra, Marco… who else is there?”

“Thomas and Mina just left awhile ago,” Petra said.

“Seems like months, huh?”

“And then there’s Mikasa.”

“Armin pops in and out, too,” Eren said, and looked over at Levi. “He has asthma, and needs some, you know, help sometimes. Here we are.” He stopped at a room and knocked on the door. “Hey, Marco!” He opened the door. “Wassup?”

A dark haired, freckled boy greeted them. “Oh, you know.”

“This is Levi, he’s gonna start volunteering soon, wanna come with us to the vending machine while we give him the tour?”

“Sure!”

Levi grabbed Eren by the sleeve as they left, nodding at Marco. “What’s his problem?”

“He’s not here for long,” Eren said.

“No?”

“Yeah,” Eren said casually. “He’ll be gone in a few weeks.”

“So there’s nothing wrong with him? Then why is he in a-”

“Hey, Eren!” Petra wheeled herself towards them. “Are we gonna get Mikasa?”

“No,” Eren said. “Let’s let her sleep.” He frowned.

Levi raised an eyebrow. Eren’s voice had changed, and he was sounding annoyed.

_Almost as annoyed as me._

In the end, Levi ended up following Eren around for an hour, and met every youth patient excepting Mikasa. He didn’t really do anything, but Carla still signed his sheet for school.

“And how much do you need?”

“I dunno, around twenty.”

“Well, I guess that means we’ll be seeing you again!”

“I guess.”

Eren grinned at him, green eyes bright. “See you in school tomorrow!”

Levi nodded and left. Jesus Christ.

He was going to have to do this twenty times?

 


	3. Chapter 3

“Hey, Levi!”

Levi, who had been in the process of changing into his PE uniform, looked up. It was Eren. His left arm was busy with the action of removing his shirt, so he lifted his right hand in greeting. Eren leaned against the row of lockers.

“Wow, your locker’s pretty near the door, huh?”

Levi nodded, then pulled off his shirt and put on his uniform. Slowly, he started taking off his pants. Was Eren going to stand there and watch him? Apparently so. He put on his gym shorts, and stuffed his phone in his binder. Once he started walking out, Eren followed him. Just fantastic. After their teacher took attendance, people began to pair up for partner stretches. Eren turned to Levi expectantly.

Levi sighed. “Right, let’s get this over with.”

“You wanna go first?”

“Sure.” Levi laid down. Their teacher used a system of stretches he was fairly sure they’d invented to torture them. They all involved one person laying down and the other moving their legs into uncomfortable positions for them. Eren lifted up Levi’s left leg. His hands were warm. Eren pushed his knee of Levi’s chest and Levi grunted.

“Sorry, too tight?”

“I’m fine.” _Why did you have to use the word tight?_

It was a very compromising position and Levi felt awkward and uncomfortable. It didn’t help that Eren was looking down at him with his big, stupid eyes the whole time. Without looking away, he lowered Levi’s leg and repeated the process with the next one.

 _This is stupid this is stupid this is stupid_ , Levi thought, and flushed. Did Eren really have to make it worse by looking at him like that? It gave the whole thing an unnecessary amount of tension.

“Right, next stretch,” Eren said. This one involved putting the leg in a horizontal position, so at least Eren wasn’t towering over him. They finished Levi’s stretches and moved onto Eren’s. Just in case Levi thought it couldn’t get any worse.

Now _he_ was the one pressing down on Eren’s leg, and he did his best to look anywhere but his eyes- which was hard, considering his other options- all while Eren chattered away about how much fun this class was.

Next, they had to run laps, and it was at this point Levi realized he had entered hell on earth. There was no escape.

He was stuck in a constant loop of _“Come on, Levi, you can run faster,”_ and _“Catch me if you can, slowpoke!”_ Eren was the most annoying person Levi had ever met, and the worst part was how ridiculously good looking Levi was starting to realize he was. He could sense jealous glares from across the genders.

 _Please, take him,_ he wanted to say. _I didn’t know what I was signing up for_. _I wasn’t prepared._

The worst part was, as annoying as he was, he wasn’t _so_ annoying that Levi could bring himself to dislike him. Eren was, for all intents and purposes, likeable, enough so that Levi was simply irritated and didn’t hate Eren like the rest of the class. In fact, the overall lesson was pretty fun.

But, Eren was still pretty annoying, and Levi did _not_ want to go through that again.

That Monday, he made the decision to _not_ attend PE on Monday, because the short class period was a waste of time and energy, and Hange had collided with him in the hall and somehow managed to convince him to eat lunch with them, so that would be enough socializing for one day.

He met Hange for lunch. She was buzzing with energy, as he’d expected. She brought him to the school’s amphitheater, which was surprisingly quiet. She waved to a group of kids he recognized from being in the Student Council, then dragged him up a straircase to where Erwin was sitting with two people he didn’t know.

“Hey guys! This is Levi. Levi, you know Erwin, and this is Mike and Nanaba!”

“Hello,” Levi said.

Hange sat down, took a lunch box out of her bag, and opened it. Levi couldn’t help but notice the _Twilight Zone_ logo. Nice.

“Do you have a lunch?” Hange asked.

“I normally buy mine.”

“Omigosh! I’m so sorry, I forgot to ask. Should I go with you to buy something?”

“It’s fine, I’m not really hungry.”

“You can have some of my sandwich then!”

“I’m fine.”

“It’s Nutella.”

Levi raised an eyebrow. “Nutella?”

“Yeah!”

“... I’ll take some.”

Hange tore off half of her sandwich and handed it to him. He took a bite.

“I made a pie last night,” Nanaba said, taking it out of her backpack.

“Why’d you make pie?”

“We had some people over, these are the leftovers.”

Levi had lost interest in the conversation, so took out his phone and started playing a game. Suddenly, he heard his name.

“What?”

“What do you think the best episode of Doctor Who is?”

“What’s Doctor Who?”

Hange gave him a shocked look. “You don’t know what Doctor Who is?”

“No, should I?”

“Doctor Who is a cultural phenomenon!”

“Sorry.”

“What shows do you watch?” Erwin asked.

“I don’t really watch much.” Levi nodded at Hange’s lunchbox. “I’ve seen the Twilight Zone, though. Is Doctor Who that thing with the blue thing?”

“The Tardis!”

“Yeah, the Tar-thing.”

“That’s it!” Hange nodded. “That’s Doctor Who!”

“My uncle had a really old figure of it for awhile. I think it went for over a thousand bucks.”

“It would.” Nanaba said.

“Went for?” Hange frowned. “He had that and he _sold_ it?!”

“He doesn’t watch Doctor What, he’s an antique dealer. He sold it to the highest bidder.”

“Ohh.”

“You must see lots of cool stuff, then!” Mike said.

“I guess.”

“What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen?” Hange demanded.

Levi frowned. “Right now he has a jar of glass eyes. Oh, and he had an antique sextoy once.”

Erwin frowned. “How’d you know it was a sextoy?”

“I was twelve and he wouldn’t tell me what it was. So when he was asleep I checked what he’d labelled it as. It was fluorescent pink, too.”

Erwin snorted.

“Where do you sell an old pink dildo?” Nanaba wondered. “Is there a market for those?”

“Craigslist,” Mike said.

“I think he actually sold it at my school auction.”

“What? Seriously?!”

“Yeah, he said it was modern art.”

Hange nearly fell over laughing.

“Then all these moms went for it. It was insane.”

Erwin grinned. “That’s fantastic!”

“I guess.”

“I want a fluorescent pink dildo,” Mike said. “When was it from?”

“The seventies, what’d you think?”

Mike chuckled, actually _chuckled_ , then pulled an apple out of his backpack and started to eat it loudly.

It wasn’t quite so bad as he’d thought. They were a little annoying, but not half as bad as the other people he met, especially at their school. They cared about his opinion but didn’t probe him, and in the end, he enjoyed his lunch for a change.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for the support this story's gotten so far!

Levi didn’t know why Kenny had offered him a ride, or why he’d accepted it, but he’d gone his best to ignore him the whole drive down to the hospital. He chatted away and Levi listened to music, then forgot to thank him for the ride and headed up the sidewalk to the front doors. Carla was at the front desk, and she looked up to smile at him when he entered.

“Back again?”

“I’ve got to get in about seventeen more hours,” Levi said. “I did some math, and we’ve got about twelve weeks left. So I’m gonna try to get in two hours a week.”

“Great! We could use a hand. Eren isn’t in today, but he showed you all the basics, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Bring that form over when you have to leave, I’ll sign it for you.”

Levi nodded and headed for the youth ward. After a moment, he realized he was definitely in the wrong ward, because he’d glanced through the window and seen a man being given a sponge bath. He retreated, found the right ward, and headed for Petra’s room. She was reading a book.

“Hey,” he said. She looked up and beamed.

“Hi!”

“You busy?”

She pulled a face. “It’s just my history homework, it can wait.”

“You take classes?”

“Yeah, I do them online.”

“Well, I’m jealous.”

“Oh _no!_ ” Petra put her hand to her chest in mock horror. “You’re not a... _punk antisocial_?”

“Ew, no.”

“That’s the _first_ sign of being a _punk antisocial!_ My god! Those headphones- that eyeliner- you’re a _punk emo goth antisocial!”_

“I’m not wearing eyeliner!”

“You’re wearing more eyeliner that me.”

“What, none? And I was gonna ask if you wanna walk around.”

“Ask me!”

“Wanna walk around?”

Petra laughed, though Levi wasn’t sure why. “Sure!”

He bent over and pulled out her wheelchair. Right, so he was supposed to socialize and make nice with the kids. He could do that. “What grade’re you in?”

“Technically, tenth, but I’m taking some senior curriculum. Like AP Psych. It’s really cool, I never would’ve been able to take it in school, though.”

Wow. This was easy. She just went on and on and on. It was kind of annoying, but Levi barely had to poke her for her to start being cheered and fulfilled. This was a fantastic job. If only she wouldn’t talk so much. He tried pulling at the wheelchair like Eren had. No effect.

“It’s really amazing, and I think it’s going to really help me out in the future. I want to be a psychologist so this will make me look really good for colleges and I might be able to start that path early. In fact, if I keep taking classes at this rate, I might graduate high school a full year early! I want to be a medical psychologist, and I’m not sure how many years of college that will take, but I think this’ll really help me out. And it never would’ve happened if I hadn’t been bed-ridden! Hey, do you need help?”

“What? Oh.” Levi was worried he had broken her wheelchair. It wasn’t snapping into position like it was supposed to. “Uh, sure.”

“It’s the other side, and then you have to unfold it.”

He pulled on the other side and unfolded the chair. “Oh. Don’t tell Eren about that.”

“I won’t!”

Levi helped her out of her bed and into the chair, and she started to wheel herself towards the door. He closed it behind her and followed her down the hall.

“So, you hungry or anything?”

“Not really, are you?”

“I’m good.”

Petra stopped at one of the doors and glanced through the window. “Great, Marco’s up!” She opened the door and retrieved Marco, who smiled at Levi. He was pushing his oxygen tank. They continued down the hall, retrieving Eld and Gunther, and several other patients.

They played video games for a few hours, until Carla came to tell Levi that Kenny had come. She signed his form, and Levi helped Petra put her chair away before heading out to meet him in the car.

“You’re early,” he said.

“Sorry,” Kenny said. “So I checked, and this is the place where Mikasa is.”

“Yeah,” Levi said. “Eren mentioned her. She’s here.” Kenny took a swipe at his head. “Hey!”

“Why didn’t you tell me that this morning?”

“I was listening to music!”

“Jesus.”

“What about Mikasa?”

“Her dad’s my cousin. Was my cousin.”

“Was?”

“Yeah. See, I got an email around a month ago. Some lunatic broke into their house and slaughtered him and his wife.”

“Oh.” Levi frowned. “That’s- I’m sorry.”

“Once Mikasa’s out of the hospital she’ll likely move in. Next of kin and all that.”

“Right.”

“I didn’t think she was so close though.” Kenny frowned. “I didn’t know we had a hospital here, huh.”

“Yeah, me either.”

“Soo,” Kenny said. “Did you have a good day then?”

“Yeah.”

“School’s good?”

“Yeah.”

There was a brief silence.

“I ate lunch with some people.”

“Friends of yours?”

“I guess.”

“That’s good! Bring them by the house sometime.”

“No.”

“I’ll give them bargain prices on anything they want.”

“Please don’t do that.”

“Shit, I missed the turn.” Kenny turned around to back the car up, then took a left. They pulled up at their house and Levi headed inside.


	5. Chapter 5

Carla looked up from her paperwork. “Hello, Levi, back so soon?”

“Yeah,” Levi said, and adjusted his collar. He’d opted against wearing a tie, but had wanted to look nice, so he was in a dress shirt. He hadn’t worn this one since he was in middle school, maybe even before. It was a little tight. “I, uh, I wanted to visit someone.”

“Oh,” Carla nodded. “Of course. Who-”

“ _Leee_ vi!” Levi started at the voice, and Hange came barrelling out from behind a door. “Levi! I thought I heard you!”

Levi yelped and Hange grabbed onto him. “Are you volunteering another day? I knew you’d like it!”

“Get off me, four-eyes!”

“Hange, Levi came to visit someone,” Carla said calmly. “I’m sure he’d appreciate some space.”

“Yeah!”

Hange let go of him. “Okay, okay. But Levi, you should come say hi to everyone later!”

“No.”

“Le _vi_!”

He shook her off.

“Who did you need to visit?” Carla asked.

“Uh, Mikasa Ackerman.”

Hange froze.

“Ah,” Carla said. “Of course. Hange, can you-”

“I’ll take him.”

Hange grabbed Levi by the arm and hauled him away.

“They actually moved her out of the youth ward,” Hange said in a low voice. “Since she needs some… help, you know?”

“No.”

“So, why are you visiting her?”

“Oh, well, my uncle’s her dad’s cousin. Apparently he’s adopting her once she’s out of here.”

“Your uncle? The antique dildo guy?”

“Not so loud!”

“Anyways,” Hange took him into an elevator and pressed a button. “Mikasa’s great. You’ll like her.”

“Okay.”

The doors opened. Hange took Levi down the hall and opened a door.

“Mikasa,” she said. “You’ve got a visitor. It’s your cousin guy. Levi, come on in.”

Levi entered. A girl with silky black hair was laying in a hospital bed. She was staring at him with large, dark eyes.

“Hello,” Levi said. She blinked. He took a step towards her. “I’m Levi. Ackerman. I live with Kenny Ackerman. You know, your dad’s cousin…?” He waited for her to speak, but she didn’t move. Levi stepped towards her and waved a hand. “Hello?”

“Sorry,” Hange smiled sadly. “She’s catatonic.”

“What?”

“She hasn’t moved since we brought her in,” Hange said. “Since her parents- you know.”

“Oh.”

The door opened again. Levi turned and started. Eren had walked in.

“Hey, Hange- oh,” he paused. “Hi, Levi.”

“Hey.”

“Mr. Ral is here, but I’m running some rounds for Dad, could you bring him to Petra?”

“Sure thing.” Hange patted Levi on the shoulder. “Just hang around for awhile.” She headed out.

Eren leaned against the door. “So, you’ve met Mikasa.”

“Yeah.”

He crossed over to join them. Levi couldn’t help but notice Mikasa’s gaze flick towards Eren. She hadn’t paid the least attention to _him_.

“Hi, Mikasa,” Eren said. “I hope you’re having a good day.”

She blinked.

“So, why’re you here? You on duty?”

“We’re related,” Levi said. “Mikasa’s moving in with me once she’s out of here.”

“That’s cool. You hear that, Mikasa? You get to live with Levi. He’s a really cool guy!”

Levi frowned, cheeks growing warm.

“Well,” Levi said. “It was nice meeting you, Mikasa. I’ll try to bring Kenny by sometime or something.”

“Want me to walk you out?” Eren offered.

“Sure. Bye, Mikasa.”

“See you later!”

The two of them headed out, down the elevator, and Eren waved to his mom before starting towards the door. Levi wasn’t sure what to say, and apparently Eren wasn’t either, because they stood in an awkward silence outside.

“So,” Eren said. “You’re having a nice day?”

“I guess. Uh, you?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool.”

“Well,” Eren said. “It was nice seeing you.”

“You too.”

Eren headed back inside, waving goodbye. Levi got out his phone and started flipping through his albums.

“Hey!”

He sighed and turned. Hange hurried out.

“What do you want?”

“Is your uncle driving you home?”

“No.”

“Oh. Well, I guess I can’t get a ride from you, huh?”

“Nope.”

“Whatever.” Hange started walking. “It was awesome seeing you today!”

“Sure thing, shit-glasses.”

“I’ll see you in school!”

“Keep walking like that and you’ll fall over.”

“What, backwards?”

“Yep.”

“No I won’t!”

Levi turned and heard Hange shriek and fall over. He laughed and put in his headphones.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another Hange/Levi friendship chapter, because friendships are my weakness.

“Hey!”

Levi jerked out his headphones and looked up from his desk at Hange.

“What the fuck do you want?”

“We’re moving seats. I’m sitting next to you now.”

“Oh, great.”

“I’ve never not sat in the front of a class before. Except for Drama. And English. But I have English with Mike, so that’s reasonable, right?”

“I don’t care.”

“Anyways, I’m in Drama. What’re your electives?”

“I don’t have one.”

“Free period?” Levi held up two fingers. Hange gasped. “ _Two_ free periods? Oh my god!”

“You’re so weird.”

“I don’t get a free period,” Hange sighed. “It sucks, my life _sucks_. Wait, I thought you were in PE?”

“I am. I’m not doing a math this year.”

“What? Oh my god. So, wait, what’s your language?”

“French.”

“I’m in French!”

“I’m in my last year.”

“Me too! This is so cool! We should take the AP together next year!”

“Ew, no.”

The bell rang, and their teacher stood up from his desk.

“To start things off, I’d like to remind you to keep up with your community project,” he said. “Time flies, they say. Anyways, since our school’s having Above the Influence Awareness throughout the semester, we’re starting a brief unit on the dangers of drugs.”

“I want drugs,” Levi said. “It’s better than this.”

Hange snorted.

“Divide up into partners-”

“You’re _mine_ ,” Hange hissed.

“And one of you come get the worksheets, the other, grab a laptop. I expect it to be completed by the end of the period.”

Levi got the laptop while Hange got the worksheets.

“This is so stupid,” Levi said. “We learned all about the dangers of drugs and shit in freshman year.” He turned on a laptop. “And these things take decades to load.”

“The dangers of shit?” Hange started scribbling in the worksheet. Levi frowned. The computer wasn’t on yet.

“I don’t know.”

“I remember these from freshman year. Drugs have weird street names. Should I fill out yours, too?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“What’s your handwriting look like?”

Levi glanced at Hange’s scrawl. “You know what, I’ll fill it in.” He took it and by the time the computer was on, they were finished.

“Look up porn,” Hange said.

“What? No! I’m not looking up porn! It’s a school computer!”

“Then look up old sex toys! _I want to see the pink dildo!_ ”

“Ew, fine.”

Levi typed _pink dildo_ into Google, and they found some. Hange grinned.

“That’s wicked!”

“It’s disgusting.”

“I’m going on tumblr,” Hange said, taking the laptop. “Because you’re being boring. Also, I need your number.”

“Why?”

“So I can text you, duh.”

Against his better judgement, Levi traded phone numbers with her.

“Do you have a tumblr?”

“No.”

“Make one.”

“No.”

“Fine.”

* * *

 

In the end, Levi learned nothing about drugs, and Hange followed him home. He really hoped she didn’t memorize the route.

“Anyways, this is my house,” he told her.

“Woah,” Hange said. “It’s so wooden.”

“Yeah, we never painted it.” Levi’s house was tall and narrow, there were three floors and an attic. Levi led Hange up the garden path and unlocked the door. “So, I live here. It’s kind of a mess since Kenny leaves his antiques and shit everywhere, but I’ve kept the dust under control.”

Hange headed inside and clapped. “This is so cool! You have, like, five wardrobes!”

“We do. On this floor.”

“Cool!”

“So.” Levi hadn’t had someone over after school in a long time, before he moved in with Kenny. “Do you want food or something?”

“That’d be great!”

He took her into the kitchen and snatched Kenny’s note up off the table before opening the fridge.

“Is this like a bachelor pad?” Hange asked. “Do you eat frozen dinners?”

“Kenny tries to cook, but I’ll have ramen any day over his food.” Levi handed Hange a donut. “Is this good?”

“Why was it in the fridge?”

“... I don’t know.”

Hange shrugged and accepted it. “So why do you live with Kenny, anyways?”

Ah, lovely, the obligatory explanation. “My mom died when I was in the fourth grade,” he said.

“Oh. That sucks.”

“Yeah. Kenny was in prison, but when he got out the next year he wanted to adopt me, and that took awhile.”

“What was he in prison for?”

“Tax fraud. Took awhile to get me because of that, but in the sixth grade I moved in with him. He still lived in a shitty apartment though, so he started this business and then we had the money for this place.”

“It’s a nice place.”

“Yeah.”

“Where’d you live before?”

“Colorado, then Connecticut.” Levi said.

“You moved pretty far, huh?”

“I get around. What about you, have you lived here your whole life?”

“Oh yeah. I went to preschool with Erwin and Mike and Nana and everyone. Made finger paintings together and stuff.”

“Sounds nice.” Levi sat down. “Hey, I, um, have a question.”

“Shoot!”

“So that guy, Eren, who volunteers and stuff?”

“Oh, yeah! His parents run the hospital, he got us started on the whole thing. Real cute, huh?”

“Uh, sure. What do you know about him?”

“Eh, it’s pretty much that.” Hange smirked. “He’s single, though, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“What? No!” Levi’s cheeks grew hot. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Suure. Do you like him?”

“I just said that was ridiculous.”

“So you don’t like him.”

“I didn’t say that! I was just curious.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“He’s good looking, I guess. I wouldn’t object to-”

“So, can I explore your house?” Hange jumped up. “Where are the antiques and shit?”

“Literally everywhere.”

“Nice!” She vanished from the room at a breakneck speed and a moment later she was shouting from a few floors up that she had found some cool Harry Potter merchandise. Levi shook his head and followed her.

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

“Levi!”

Levi pulled out his headphones and glanced up at Eren. He was grinning.

“... Yes?”

Eren sighed. “You never listen to anything.” He nodded to the teacher. “Just read the partners for the project. We’re together!”

“Oh. Great.”

“So, we have to pick our topic. You know, from the list.”

“Ah, yes. The list.”

Eren sighed again. “With all due respect. You’re hopeless.”

“Rude.”

He grabbed his wrist, and Levi’s cheeks grew hot. Did he have to be so hand-holdy? Eren tugged him up to the front of the room to look at a list on the board.

Levi bit his lip. Eren was immature and could be hella annoying, but he was kind of… pretty. Especially when he was focused. He had a bright, interested look in his eyes. He had very nice eyes.

Oh, god. He was not thinking this.

“So,” Eren said. “Most of these are kinda B.S., but we could do drunk driving, everyday causes of cancer, mental illnesses, um… smoking, too.”

“Those are the good ones?”

“Pretty much.”

“Ew.” Eren laughed, face lighting up, and Levi scolded himself for liking it.

Eren shrugged. “Well, I don’t really care, you pick.”

“Um, cancer or drunk driving.”

“Cancer. We’ll have an edge.” He was kind of funny, too. Not that funny. In fact, his sense of humor was shit.

He was not funny at all, now that Levi thought about it. Huh.

“What do we know about cancer,” Levi said.

“I don’t know, things?”

“What an edge we have.”

“Huge.”

Their teacher stood up, and announced that they’d finished their time in the classroom. Eren darted over to claim their topic and then they walked out to the track.

Eren coughed. “Soo, dumb project aside, how’s your day been?”

“Oh, you know. Suckish. And you?”

“Less suckish, now.” That sounded like he was beginning to flirt.

“Same here,” Levi said, and Eren smiled.

“You’re not gonna be a team captain, right?”

“Me? For flag football?” Levi raised an eyebrow, and Eren grinned.

“That’s what I figured. I get you for my team, then.”

Levi rolled his eyes. “Ah, that’s right, I’d forgotten. You’re on of those weirdos who likes to be a captain.”

“You’re calling me a weirdo, Mr. Eyeliner?”

“I’ll have you know,” Levi said coolly. “That eyeliner has not touched me since I was twelve.”

“Oh my god,” Eren laughed. “You actually wore eyeliner.”

“I was twelve!”

“You were an emo middle schooler!”

“At least I grew out of my brat phrase! You, on the other hand…”

“Hey!”

Levi snorted and Eren hit him with his binder. “Don’t tell me you went to those dumb emo concerts, too!” Eren said.

“Excuse me?”

“Oh no.”

“I went to five MCR concerts. I saw Gerard Way once. We were inches away.”

Eren almost fell over laughing. “You were such a weird emo dork.”

Levi, who did not have a binder, grabbed Eren’s and hit him. “You’ve got some nerve, calling me a dork. You’re a dork. You work at the same place as your parents.”

Eren shoved him to the side. “Yeah, but you’re dorkier.”

“Sure.”

They reached the track and everyone lined up. Eren and Jean both volunteered to be team captains. That would be fun.

Eren and Jean had what one could call a small rivalry. This meant that they pranked, blatantly insulted, got competitive with, and sometimes tried to attack each other. It wasn’t a big deal.

Eren picked Reiner, one of the more athletic kids in the class, before Levi. Levi could hardly blame him. Jean picked a girl he thought was named Ymir and Eren picked a girl named Krista, followed by Bertholdt. Eventually they were running low on people to pick, so they also got Annie on their team. She was pretty athletic, but like Levi, she hated doing things. It would have been a pretty kickass team if anyone actually wanted to play flag football. Levi suspected Reiner and Eren would carry most of the game against Jean, Ymir, Connie, Sasha, and the opposing team.

“Krista, guard Ymir,” Eren instructed. Krista nodded as if she’d been given a very important job. “Reiner, you’re on Sasha, and Bert, you get Connie.”

They got into position, and Eren yelled something that sounded significant, and they were suddenly playing. It might have been fun if Levi knew what the fuck was going on. Annie had somehow managed to smuggle her phone into class and was standing still and typing. Levi would have also stood still, but having headphones out was a lot more noticeable than just texting.

“Levi!” Eren shouted, and threw a ball to him. Levi fumbled, but caught it.

“What do I do?”

“Run!” Eren yelled, making a motion ahead. Levi nodded and took off with the ball. He ran off the field and onto the track before turning around. Eren was jumping up and down.

“Was that far enough?”

Eren gave him the thumbs up and motioned for him to return. Levi jogged back over and tossed the ball at him.

“Never throw that thing to me again.”

Eren grinned, eyes bright. “But you’re really good! You just scored a touchdown!”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“Whenever someone throws you the ball, just run it into that section, okay?”

“Sure.”

A few minutes later they were playing again, and Reiner passed the ball to Levi. Jean sprinted over. In a moment, Levi’s flags had been pulled off.

“Levi!” Eren yelled. Levi shrugged. Eren tried to pass to him again, but when Jean came after him this time Levi handed him the ball and Jean took off. Sasha nearly doubled over laughing.

Their teacher blew the whistle to announce the end of the period, and Eren grabbed his binder and caught up with Levi on his way back to class.

“What the hell, man.”

“I don’t know how to play football.”

Eren sniggered and shoved Levi. “You’re super lame.”

Levi smiled. “Yeah, whatever.”

* * *

“So,” Levi told Petra. “I think I’ve got the chair down. It’s fold, and a- release!”

He let got of the wheelchair quickly, anticipating it to spring open, but it stayed still.

“Oh,” he said.

“Idiot,” Petra said affectionately. “We went over this last time. It’s the other side.”

“I knew that,” Levi said, reaching for it. “I was just making sure you-” he pulled his hand back as it sprung open. “God, that stings.”

Petra reached for the chair and pulled it over, and dropped into it from the bed. “You’re hopeless!”

“I am no such thing.”

She laughed and wheeled herself away. Levi followed her.

“How’s school?”

Levi shrugged. “It’s school. And you?”

“Hella. Hey, Marco! Oh, he’s sleeping.” Petra continued down the hall. “Dammit, everyone’s sleeping. It’s daytime. This isn’t fair.”

“It’s getting darker, since it’s winter.” Levi shrugged. “So, um, I have a question for you.”

“Shoot!”

“What do you know about… uh… you know,” Levi made a few meaningless gestures, then sighed. “Eren’s… romantic life?”

Petra looked at him for a moment, then giggled.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing!” She beamed. “Why? Do you liike him?”

“You know what I don’t like? The weird way you said that.”

She laughed. “You should just ask him out. He’d totally say yes.”

“So he’s, you know-”

“I’ve seen you wearing a leather jacket. Trust me. He’d say yes.”

Dammit. Levi had forgotten that he’d worn his old leather jacket over the week before. It had been cold and he’d needed something clean. He’d vowed never to be seen in that thing again.

“I’m not going to ask him out,” Levi said defensively. “I don’t, you know, like him or anything.”

“Suure.”

“But you know, if he were to ask me, I might not be too against that, you know?”

Petra saluted jokingly. “I’ll drop all the hints I can, captain!”

“Right, sure.” Levi paused. “I mean, he is kinda good looking.”

Petra giggled again.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh my I still haven't finished the next chapter yet that's not good time to get writing
> 
> Edit: Edit: I will not update until June 12 or 19, because of end-of-semester such. Although, I could try to do biweekly updates in the summer, if you guys are up for it? Let me know.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in posting this! I will put up more once more is written, hopefully I can give you a big update before I leave for vacay. This chapter isn't really edited too much, but, you know... stuff happens? Some backstory gets dumped on you. I hope you all enjoy!

Levi realized at noon that Eren was coming over to his house. This was followed by the realization that he did not know _when_ he was coming to his house, or if Eren had any idea where his house was.

He didn’t have Eren’s number, so there was no way to double check anything. He bolted out of his chair and started cleaning. His room would probably be their base of operations, so he neatened that up first, then he headed downstairs to tidy up the kitchen and the living room.

Oh, _God._ Kenny had made breakfast.

Cursing his uncle, Levi started washing the pile of dishes in the sink. In his experience, heating up some cider or vanilla on the stove got rid of the stench, but right now, the kitchen was _drenched_ in the smell of smoke. Harder to get rid of. He opened a window and turned on the dishwasher, and went outside. They had kind of a garden in the back, though it was mostly a maze of plants Levi knew nothing about. He wandered around until he found the lavender and rosemary and brought in a few handfuls, which he stuck in some jars and left around the kitchen.

Kenny had made the damn mess baking cinnamon rolls. The remaining three were sitting on the counter, drenched in frosting. Levi sniffed one and then had a bite. It was a little burnt, and cold, but not bad. But, Kenny had made them, so he scrapped them and started boiling some water. Maybe Eren liked pasta. Hopefully he liked pasta.

Eren showed up about an hour later, and Levi reheated the pasta for him.

“I’m glad you could make it,” he said. “How’d you find the place?”

“Oh, I asked Hange if she knew where you were.”

“Sorry I forgot to tell you.”

“It’s all good!”

Eren grinned, and Levi looked away. Jesus, he was hot. It wasn’t fair. Why hadn’t he noticed how hot he was sooner? Not cool.

“Okay,” Eren said. “So, today, we’ve got to research every day causes of cancer.”

“How in-depth do we need to go? I mean,” Levi pulled the past out of the microwave and sat down. “It’s not like, some big secret that there’s cigarettes, and sunlight-”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. But there’s still other stuff, so we should probably find those?”

“Oh man, I didn’t give you a fork.” Levi stood to grab him one.

“Um,” Eren lifted the fork to look at it. “Are all your forks this… square?”

Levi shrugged. “Kenny’s business leads to weird silverware.”

“Well, your dad sounds pretty cool."

"He actually isn't my dad."

"Oh."

Eren looked down at his pasta, and the two were silent for a moment.

“Do you… want to see more silverware?”

“Sure!” Eren jumped up and Levi smirked, leaning over to open up the drawer for him.

“Do you like comics at all? We’ve got this complete set of Bat-silverware.”

“Wow!” Eren leaned over his shoulder, and Levi stiffened. He could feel his breath on his neck.

He shoved the silverware at him, stepping away. “Take a gander.”

“That’s so cool!” He gasped, a bit overdramatically, and set the silverware down. “Does that mean… you have vintage comics?”

“Sure, you wanna see some?” Eren’s eyes widened, and he nodded. Levi headed out of the kitchen, and Eren followed him up the staircase. “Kenny had like, the first one a while back. It went for almost a million.”

“You’re secretly rich?”

“It all goes to buying more crap, and besides, I don’t know if it actually went for that much.”

“Of course it did! Was it the first actual Batman comic? Or was it Detective Comics number twenty seven? Because, that did go for over a million once.” Levi stopped, and turned to look at Eren.

“Oh my god.”

“What?”

“You secret _nerd_."

“I am not! And Batman’s been around for seventy years. Of _course_ it’s expensive.”

Levi laughed. “Dork. Okay, we keep all the books and comics and shit up in the attic.” He opened the door. “Go be a dumb geek.”

The attic was a mess of bookshelves and boxes. Eren immediately ripped the top off one of the boxes labelled _B_ and then raced over to rip off the top of the _R_ box. He stood. “Just as I suspected!”

“What?”

“You have terrible organization. You need to keep any comics about Robin and everyone with Batman.” He bent over, holding up two comics to show Levi. “You need to have special alphabetized boxes for relation to heroes. Like, subcategories! Also, none of these are in order."

“Okay, nerd. If you want, you can reorganize them.”

Eren looked up, eyes shining. “I can?”

“Knock yourself out.”

A few hours later, a call came from below. “Levi, I’m home!” Levi would have ignored Kenny if not for the words that followed: “And I have pizza!”

“We’re in the attic!”

A moment later, Kenny appeared in the door. “We? Don’t tell me you- Hi!” Kenny's eyes lit up. Eren turned, and stood up to offer him a hand. “Levi, who’s this?”

“I’m Eren Jaeger. You must be Kenny! It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Ackerman.”

“Just Kenny’s fine.”

“Levi tells me you’ve been to a correctional facility!”

Kenny glared at Levi. “You don’t need to go spreading that around.” Levi sniggered.

“That must have been really... interesting. Have you ever seen Orange is the New Black?”

Levi snorted, and Kenny shot him another look. “No, I can’t say that I have.”

"Eren's been organizing some of your comics," Levi said. "Tell him, Eren."

Eren brightened. "Yeah! You've got a really good alphabetical system, you even did the titles. No stores ever do that and it makes finding the right comic _so_ hard. But you do need to keep some stuff in order, you know? Mostly all I did was move sidekick type comics into some of your more empty boxes and relocate those back into the other, and I also moved series around so they were in order. If you've got some paper I can write up a list for you. See, it's mostly just heroes like Red Hood and people who are under Batman, but there are also some spin off characters for other guys. So I made this box for you and I-" Eren flushed. "Uh, I hope that's okay."

"He's a über nerd," Levi told Kenny.

"Yeah, alright, makes sense. So long as you draw up that list. Then we can keep it going. You staying the night?"

"No, I'm supposed to be home by ten. What's the time?"

"Five thirty. There's pizza for you boys downstairs, I've gotta head off. I've got dinner with this guy who owns a pawn shop. I'm trying to convince him to give up a diamond necklace. Levi, I've been showing him pictures of you and saying you want to give it to your girlfriend."

"What?! Why?"

"He'll part with it for way less if he doesn't know I'm trying to resell it."

"You're so weird. I don't even _have_ a girlfriend. What photos are you even showing him?"

"I got that Zoë girl to send me some pictures she had."

"What? Hange?! You're using _Hange_ as my fake girlfriend?!"

"That's the ticket."

"How'd you even contact her?"

"Thanks for doing the comics, Eren. Should be back before you leave."

Kenny shut the door behind him, and Eren snickered. "What's so funny, bozo?"

"Do you have a _thing_ for Hange?"

Levi folded his arms, flushing. "I do not, that's gross, and stop laughing."

"But that makes it even better!"

"Let's talk about something else."

"Okay. So, while I was putting my heart and soul into organizing your uncle's comics, and you were standing and watching me like a creep, did you do any research on everyday causes of cancer?"

"... No."

"So what did you do? Anything at all related to our project?"

Levi had taken a few pictures of Eren, but looking back, that _had_ been pretty creepy of him. Christ, he was weird. "I went on tumblr."

"Figures. Well, let's go to your room then, and you can actually do work while I make the list for your uncle. Also, I'm going to make a much more important list called _'Comics Levi really needs to read because he'll win my undying friendship and love.'_ "

"Doesn't being a nerd attract Hanges?"

"You bet it does, and gross ugly tears. If the Justice League is the only thing I ever see you express any sort of feeling over, I'll die happy."

"Right. Go on and make your list, I'll do the cancer shit." Levi started down the hall, and Eren followed him. He opened the door to his room.

"I see you like emo bands," Eren said.

"Fall Out Boy isn't emo," Levi snapped.  "Their lead singers are characterized as such by an emo fanbase."

"And MCR?"

"They were too good for this world."

"And _I'm_ the nerd?"

"I decorated this tool when I was like, twelve, okay?"

Eren's eyes lit up as he caught sight something across the room. "Hey, you've got a guitar in here. Can you play?"

"Not that well. I only learned how cause Kenny got it for me."

"Same for the piano?"

"Yeah. The guitar's signed, piano is from some old singer I don't know's concert before I was born. Kenny snags me pretty cool stuff."

"So, if I become your best friend in the world, will I get stuff?"

"Fat chance. The role of best friend in the world is already taken. By two people."

"Wow, you're opening up about your life." Eren sat down on Levi's nearly made bed. "So, you've got two friends, who actually exist, and aren't fake or possible catfishes online?"

"Yeah, duh."

"Then why are you all _I'm a loner emo who'll eat your soul_ at school? Instead of hanging with them? Wait, are they emits too? Does our school have an emo clique I don't know about?"

"They don't live here, you idiot."

"Oh."

Levi sat down on the bed next to him. "They're in Colorado. That's where I'm from."

"Oh. Who are they?"

Levi sighed. "Farlan and Isabel."

"And what're they like?"

"Absolutely great. And..."

"And?"

Levi sighed again. "I dunno, I haven't spoken to them in seven months."

"What? Unacceptable. Why not?"

"I don't know. I just haven't. I mean, we've spoken, just not face to face. We text a bit, but it's not the same, and I don't like skyping or calling people that much, you know? And my mom and I lived in Colorado, and I don't wanna go back and visit and be that pathetic kid with a dead mom who grew up all weird and broken. And I don't want _them_ to think I'm all weird and broken." Levi looked up, sensing Eren's gaze, and found him staring at him. He reached up to rub the back of his neck. "See, you're looking at me like a freak."

"I didn't know you had a dead mom," Eren said, eyes wide. He has such pretty eyes. Why did he have to have such pretty eyes?

"Well, I do."

"That must be rough." He paused, and looked away. "My mom almost died when I was nine."

"Carla?"

"Yeah. She got breast cancer, and for awhile she acted like everything was fine, but the chemo wasn't really working, and she actually started talking to me about how I was going to have to be okay without her. It was really scary. Then her surgery worked out and she was alright. I was really happy. You must have it a lot harder."

"I don't know," Levi shrugged. "My mom and I weren't seeing each other that often before she died."

"Were you with Kenny?"

"No. Kenny was in a correctional facility, and I was in a group foster home, because my mom was also in a correctional facility. A really shitty one."

"Does crime run in your family or something?"

Levi looked at the floor. "Kenny went in on tax fraud, my mom got busted for prostitution."

"... Oh. I see."

"Yeah. Everyone knew about it, too. But she was still my mom."

_And the damn facility wouldn't let me visit her that often or let her visit me and we couldn't talk like normal people, and they were crap at getting letters back and forth, and then she stopped writing and I didn't find out why until there was some lady came to interview me for some article on the place, and she gave me all these letters and I’d thought my mom had just stopped caring about me, and then out of the blue she just goes, yeah, she’s_ dead _._

"... What happened?"

"AIDs. Those facilities are really, really shitty." Levi stood up. "I think your stuff is still downstairs, I'll be right back." He headed for the door. Why was he being so open with Eren? Yeah, he was cute, and nice, and a good listener, but he didn't like him or anything.

Levi stopped on the staircase. "No," he said, lifting a finger. No, no, _no_. Levi Ackerman did not get crushes, especially dumb ones, and he most certainly did not get them on younger men.

_Ah, but you have,_ a snide voice in his head said. No. Levi was going to nip this in the bud. He grabbed Eren's backpack and the box of pizza and headed back upstairs.

Eren looked up from his place on Levi's bed. "I'm thinking of starting you on the nineties cartoons," he said.

Levi dropped the backpack.

"Dammit," he said. Why did Eren have to be so sweet?! He wasn't trying to get Levi to talk about his messed up childhood or anything! He was just being selfless and sweet and not poking him! Dammit!

"It's okay. My laptop's in there, but thing's been thrown around at basketball practice, like, weekly. It'll survive. Toss it to me?"

Levi sat down the pizza box, and picked the backpack up to throw it over. "Speaking of practice, I've got a game this weekend, Saturday night. If you wanted we could meet after I have a team pizza and work on the project that night? Next day, too."

"Sounds good." Levi sat down at his desk. He could still nip this in the bud. Right? Right?

"So, the nineties Batman show was arguably the best thing to ever happen."

He was doomed.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> i don't know how many times i could say this but eren is not going to die of cancer that is not happening no cancer deaths no sad deathbed scenes i hope


End file.
